A new species of Plagiopholis Boulenger, 1893 (Serpentes, Pseudoxenodontinae) from southeastern Yunnan, China

A new species of the genus Plagiopholis is described based on a single specimen collected from Wenshan Prefecture, southeastern Yunnan Province, China. Compared with other species of the genus, it has a unique combination of morphological characteristics: one loreal, six supralabials, 2 + 2 temporals, smooth anterior dorsal scales and feebly keeled posterior dorsal scales, 116 ventral scales, 32 subcaudal scales, some subcaudal scales being paired and some being unpaired, an inverted “ V ” shaped nuchal blotch, and a yellowish white ventral surface with many small dark spots.

Phylogenetically, the new species formed a distinct clade in the genus and diverged from other species of the genus by 8.6 % – 16.6 % in the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. This study increases the number of valid species of the genus Plagiopholis to eight.